A new edition of our not-regular series exploring small-run releases, exploratory sounds from outside, little glimpses of light on the moor.
Various Artists
Witches Of Eagle Crag
(Folklore Tapes)
2LP with booklet
Starting this month with a new collection of sounds from the Folklore Tapes stable of musicians as they head to Yorkshire’s Witch lore over a double LP entitled Witches Of Eagle Crag. Personnel on this one is Bridget Hayden, Dan-Bridgwood-Hall, Ramsey Janini, Sam McLoughlin and David Chatton Barker. Two side-long jams deep in mind-music, with a flute dancing around the drones and atmospheres like a giddy ghoul. Total trance music this time around from these guys, bringing to mind everything from Conrad Schnitzler and Kluster to the French group France via Wicker Man aesthetics (this is probably a gauche comparison for the true scholars of the occult and British folklore but hey, laypeople we most definitely are.) Really loving the movements on this one, with drone-rock falling into swelling violin tides and percussive flurries. Side A is the studio version, while Side B is a live setting and it’s interesting to compare the two, with the latter being wilder and more searching, the studio version for all the hi-fi nerds. Exceptional work from Folklore Tapes once again. READ MORE.
Figuras
Figuras
(ONO)
LP – Each Sleeve Unique
Next up, a collection of recordings from Riga-based gallerist, curator and sound explorer Kaspars Groševs. Figuras is the sound of human-machine interface, deeeeeep dub explorations, gargling sonics, spacious dynamics inviting head-rhythms to fill the space. This music already feels like classic 2010s experimentation… think the myriad weirdos on American Tapes, Night People, Not Not Fun… which makes sense as the time period documented here spans 2011- 2018. It’s amazing tripped-out head-music, inverting the listener’s reality inwards in gelatinous folds of reality. Also reminds us a little Glasgow’s Dip Friso or stuff on 12th Isle. Being a visual artist and everything, Groševs has hand-made unique sleeves for this one, 100 in total, a selection of which follow… just cop this beautiful work! READ MORE
Last but absolutely not least, our favourite London DIY Pop auteur Tom Bryant’s tape as The Living Rainbow is so dreamy, leaning into vintage Cure-isms as well as all the Martin Newelishness you can shake a bike at. 
The Living Rainbow
The Dusty Clock
(INformatiON!)
Cassette
Last we checked in on The Living Rainbow, sole consistent member Tom Bryant’s crusty 4 track had barely made it through an album’s worth of material in the utterly delightful DIY’d fragile racket that was, simply, “Tape.” On The Dusty Clock it’s not as if we’ve reached Half-Speed Mastered Audiophile wankery but there has definitely be a blooming of feeling in all things Living Rainbow. Bryant steps forward – a little – into the microphone’s sphere of influence and has let his charasmatic vocal breathe a little.
If previously there was a big redolence that pointed to the early 80s DIY counterculture, well, there’s no big surprises this time around except there are some loving little touches that amp up the pining, the melody and the charm. A falsetto backing vocal here and there (is it Bryant’s own whimsical register?) some glockenspiel to decorate the melodic lines, a lead-bassline Peter Hook style that melts into an early-Felt swamp of feeling on Hamburg Girl? Aye go on then. Some of Bryant’s exaltations start to remind us a little of David Tibet too, albeit with a urban realness that doesn’t dissolve into cosmic tongue-speaking, maybe it’s the new confidence in Bryant’s voice?
What’s so cool about The Living Rainbow is that it sails right between the parted waters of DIY indie pop (feels like Martin Newell’s grand-progeny on quite a lot of this one) and the devil-may-care experiemental agit pop of The Homosexuals and the South London 80s massive. READ MORE